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Fluffy's Reign of Terror!
"Fluffy's Reign of Terror!" is the 20th of 35 Darkwing Duck comic stories published in the Disney Adventures magazine. It is a two-parter spread over two issues, with the first being unlabeled and the second holding the subtitle "Chapter Two - Home Is Where the Hate Is". It follows on "The Kitty Kat Kaper" and "Cat in a Hot Tin Suit" in the Fluffy Trilogy. Summary It's a big day at the St. Canard Maximum Security Supervillain Prison: Fluffy gets to leave. Prions guards Sidney and Dave fetch him from his cell that morning to welcome him to his life as a free cat. They hand him all the pieces of his super-suit, his wallet, and a blue suit to leave dressed nicely. As his friends, Sidney and Dave are sad to see him leave, but also happy with his new chance. Fluffy feels largely the same way, with as big difference that he fully intends to return to the villainous path rather than stay a good cat. Until he has his minions and resources gathered, he returns to the King of the Sea canning factory. Days later, Fluffy's plan goes into action. Darkwing Duck is made aware of this when a special news bulletin announces the mysterious disappearance of hundreds of people from St. Canard. He and Launchpad ride out to investigate, finding not a single person in the most recently affected area but heaps of what looks like green snow. They stop to investigate, at which point Fluffy shows himself. Darkwing demands an explanation, which Fluffy refuses. Using in-built missiles, the mutant blows up the Ratcatcher and leaves Darkwing to fret over it. Launchpad tries to calm him down, but words prove useless. Hoping it'll make the desired difference, Launchpad kneads a snowball from the green snow and throws it to the back of Darkwing's head. The hero snaps out of it, but in anger, andwering Launchpad's gesture with a snowball to his face. After that, it becomes still for a moment. Then the crimefighting duo suddenly makes a run for it. Twelve hours later, Drake Mallard, Gosalyn Mallard, and Launchpad McQuack have moved to Canarda and are working on building a house in the middle of a forest. The two adults are happy as can be, but Gosalyn isn't and angrily demands to know why they suddenly had to move all the way over here. Neither Drake nor Launchpad can find an answer, but they do realize their desire to move came after their snowball fight. And from there, they deduce the green snow to be Fluffy's main weapon this time around: flee powder. They return to St. Canard to find the last of the civilians pouring out, blocking Audubon Bay Bridge with their numbers. Darkwing summons the River-Ratcatcher to get across Audubon Bay and, suspecting that there will be an army of cats waiting for them on the city side, attaches a fishing net at the back of the vehicle. By the time the other shore and, indeed, cats are in sight, the duo has caught plenty of fish to distract them with and move on safely. Within the city, the crimefighters have a run-in with Megavolt, Liquidator, and Bushroot, who have no clue why the city is deserted but enjoy their free time bothering cats. They consider battling Darkwing for a moment, but because they're not working, they instead shift from bothering cats to bothering him. They go so far as to steal his hat, but Darkwing can't be bothered to get it back with the more pressing matter of Fluffy hanging above his head. The three mutants think it's hilarious that the terror that flaps in the night is after a little kitty, but they have to swallow their words when the ground under them is blown up with no warning whatsoever. Darkwing smugly introduces them to Fluffy, who had come to see who are the bipedal creatures still ugly-ing up the landscape his security system had warned him about. He is dismayed to see the mutants, understanding that the flee powder can't influence mutants because of their unique bodies. He, however, still has his super-suit that has more than enough abilities to deal with the nuisance personally. Liquidator attacks Fluffy in retaliation, but the cat-genius simply shines a strong lamp on him to turn him into a harmless cloud. Liquidator hightails it out of the battle scene. Megavolt and Bushroot join his escape, with Darkwing sending Launchpad after the three to keep an eye on them. Darkwing himself stays to deal with Fluffy, who is forced to admit that his flee powder instantly immunizes a person and can therefore only be used once. As in his fight with Liquidator, though, he has his super-suit to end the crimefighter. Before Fluffy can cut him to pieces with a large scissor, he throws his would-be executioner a fish he had kept from his river ride and treated with a sleeping potion. Fluffy, suspicious, throws the fish to another cat, Garth, and watches him fall asleep. Furious at the trickery, he turns to destroy Darkwing, but only sees a psychiatrist who is acting as if he was expecting Fluffy for an appointment. Fluffy fails to recognize he is dealing with a disguised Darkwing and proceeds to answer the psychiatrist's questions with confusion. Meanwhile, Bushroot and Megavolt have thought up a way to help Liquidator, who is still stuck in cloud mode. They've acquired dry ice to turn him into a rain cloud and Bushroot has some seeds for gigantic mushrooms that are able to lift them all the way up to their comrade. They plan to take over St. Canard when reunited, which makes it necessary for Launchpad to stop them timely. He manipulates the cats into using the mushroom as scratching post, which makes it sway and break before Liquidator can be treated. Launchpad arrests Bushroot and Megavolt thereafter and goes in search of Darkwing. Darkwing by now has gotten Fluffy to recall painful memories and uses the cat's trust to give him a glass of water, which contains more sleeping potion. Fluffy recognizes the smell and realizes he's been tricked. He shoots another missile at Darkwing, who is running by now, but Darkwing manages to change the missile's trajectory. It hits bus next to Fluffy, which sends it sky high. Fluffy mocks Darkwing, but ends that when he sees the bus come falling back to the earth, right on top of him. Though in pain, his super-suit protects him from most harm he could've suffered. Darkwing helps him out from under the bus just as Launchpad arrives with his two arrestees. He urges Darkwing to take down Fluffy now that he's defenseless, but Fluffy counters he'll return to jail willingly. Normal cats are horrble minions and he does miss the company of his friends back at the supervillain prison. Darkwing doesn't complain he gets to bring in three villains at once. Cast Quotes : "Okay... one metal exo-skeleton, wit' rocket-pack... one hooded cloak, olive drab... fourteen programmable missiles... eight dozen tennis balls... one t'ermonuclear device... Hey, you got a license fer dis?" : "Should be in my wallet!" : "Oh, right! Here it is!" :— Fluffy and the prison guards. : "I cannot sit idly by while hundreds of potential fan club members evaporate like so much steamed milk! I must investigate! Let's get curious!" :— Darkwing Duck. : "My motto has always been "be prepared"!" : "I thought that was the Boy Scouts' motto!" : "The little creeps stole it from me! Remind me to sue!" :— Darkwing and Launchpad. : "Whattaya think? Should we splatter him?" : "Oxycute him!" : "Naw, we're not workin' right now! Let's just go over and call him names!" :— Megavolt, Liquidator, and Bushroot. : "Fine! Be that way! I haven't got time for this anyway--I've got to get Fluffy!" : "Don't you mean "dangerous"??" :— Megavolt gets smart with Darkwing. : "What was that???" : "I think maybe we're dead!" : ""Gentlemen", and I use the term as loosely as possible... ...allow me to introduce... Fluffy!!!" :— Darkwing to the Fearsome Three out of Five. : "Shall we regroup, Mister Volt?" : "An excellent suggestion, Mister Bush!" :— Bushroot and Megavolt after Liquidator is defeated. : "Rrrr! Unfortunately, a person's system is immunized after only one exposure to flee powder! But the same cannot be said of my duck-seeking missiles!" : "Don't you ever run out of those things??!" :— Fluffy and Darkwing. : "Treachery! Deceit! Cowardice! --All personified in one big purple jerk!" :— Fluffy on Darkwing. : "Tell me about your childhood, Mizter Fluffy!" : "But I'm only two!" :— A psychiatrist who's totally not Darkwing and Fluffy. : "And so, in the end, the villain learns that he simply cannot live without the very people he tried so hard to drive away! Ironic? Pathetic? Sad? These are but a few of the 31 flavors of justice served up by Darkwing Duck!" :— Darkwing gets wordy. Notes References * "Eat my shorts, man!" is a line iconic to Bart Simpson from the 1989 television series The Simpsons. * Darkwing's line of "We'll be together again soon, and no one will ever come between us, I promise! Gobba Gobba!" is a reference to the "Gabba Gabba Hey" catchphrase from the 1977 song "Pinhead", which itself is an adaption of the line "Gooble, gobble, we accept her, we accept her, one of us, one of us!" from the 1932 movie Freaks. * Bushroot's description of a movie in which regular birds kill everyone points at the 1963 movie The Birds. * Bushroot's "Be afraid! Be very afraid!" is a typical horror line popularized by the 1986 movie The Fly. * "Don't cry for me, Argentina!", "I'm flying!", and "Alone again, naturally!", all uttered by the Liquidator, are quotations of respectively the 1976 song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina", the 1980 song "I'm Flying", and the 1972 song "Alone Again (Naturally)". * "These are but a few of the 31 flavors of justice served up by Darkwing Duck!" is a parody of the "31 flavors" slogan of the ice cream specialty shop Baskin-Robbins. Milestones * This comic marks the first appearance of Sidney, Dave, Garth, the River-Ratcatcher, and flee powder. Errors * In "Cat in a Hot Tin Suit", Fluffy was sentenced to 15 life sentences. He appears to be getting out a little early in "Fluffy's Reign of Terror!" to match that. * Bushroot creates huge mushrooms by planting them as seeds, but fungi aren't plants and don't start as seeds, but as mycelia. * Liquidator is not freed from his cloudy state by the end of the comic and everyone leaves for jail as if he never was part of the story at all. * The line "Uh, it's just a hero thing!" in the final panel is probably meant to be spoken by Launchpad and not Darkwing. Other * The Liquidator does not use commercial slogans throughout the comic, but to the end he uses song names as his lines. This angle is unique to this comic story. * Bushroot is a plant creature, not a fungus creature, though in fiction the two groups are often placed together. That said, Bushroot never in-universe uses fungus-based inventions or calls on fungi to aid him in any story that is not this comic. The only other instance where he makes use of fungus-specific material is in the episode "A Star Is Scorned", which does not take place in-universe. External links * Fluffy's Reign of Terror! at I.N.D.U.C.K.S. Category:Disney Adventures